For T3 today I’m talking about the HR Tech Conference, not an individual piece of HR or Talent Technology.  The HR Tech Conference is held each year in Vegas in October. This year it’s October 18-21 at the Mandalay Bay.  I love this conference!

This year I’ll be attending HR Tech as an HR Tech Insider.  I’m not sure what this means except I’ll be blogging and talking about great HR Tech like I usually do, but maybe I’ll get access to some inside information like thirteen seconds before you get privy to the information as well! Yay, me!

HR Tech is one of the conferences I look forward to each year.  All the big HR and Talent Tech players launch all their new stuff.  All the up and coming HR tech comings come out and unveil what they are working on, and last year HR Tech even added a Startup area so I got introduced to about dozen companies that no one has heard of, that are working on stuff you’ll be using in five years!

It’s like Comic Con for HR nerds that love technology!

Here’s the other thing that HR Tech offers that you won’t get at conferences like SHRM.  You get a ton of of sessions where real HR pros and companies get on stage and talk about their secret sauce!  They talk about what they are using, how they are using it and all the good, bad and ugly it took to get them to this point.  It’s a brilliant format that I think teaches HR leaders what they really need to know.

I will caution HR and Talent Pros.  This conference isn’t for everyone.  I recommend HR Tech to everyone, and last year had some folks attend, on my recommendation and they weren’t very impressed. Why? It’s not SHRM.  They were expecting SHRM and HR Tech is not SHRM.  HR Tech is like the anti-SHRM.  I’m not knocking SHRM. I also like SHRM National, but for different reasons.

The audience at HR Tech is different from SHRM.  HR Tech gets more HR leaders, HRIS pros and organizational IT pros, basically buyers of HR and Talent technology.   The conversations and sessions that take place at HR Tech are definitely more strategic in nature than you’ll get in normal conversations at SHRM.  The other big difference is attendees of HR Tech seem more engaged and excited about HR as a function.

So, I’m again excited to be attending and blogging the latest and greatest HR and Talent Tech that I see.  If you want to go, I have a discount code you can use to receive $150 off your registration: Promo Code: SACKETT  (www.hrtechconference.com/register.html).  The code is good until October 15th!

Hope to see you at the conference!